CLEVELAND — The number of Ohioans who continue to file for unemployment has steadily decreased as the state gradually reopens, starting with restaurants, campgrounds, hair salons, barbershops and other businesses. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) said 46,062 Ohioans filed jobless claims for the week ending on May 16, bringing the nine-week total to 1,215,756.
That’s a drop from the week before ending on May 9 when 51,125 Ohioans field for an unemployment. Over the last nine weeks, Ohio has distributed more than $2.8 billion in unemployment compensation payments to more than 619,000 claimants.
Of the more than 1 million applications received, ODJFS has processed more than 92% of those, with less than 8% remain pending.
More than 161,000 Ohioans have applied for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which was created to assist workers who wouldn't usually qualify for unemployment benefits — for example, anyone with COVID-19, a family member with COVID-19 or caring for someone with COVID-19 qualifies for PUA.
